Understanding Gwent: Tips for Playing the Northern Realms Faction

Perhaps you've just received your first set of Gwent: The Legendary Card Game, or someone has challenged you to a few rounds. You have come to the right place to brush up on your skills and learn some basic tips to help you master Geralt of Rivia's favorite card game!

When learning to play Gwent, the first thing you should understand is how the five Gwent factions work. Your strategy will change depending on which faction you're playing, since they each have different strengths and abilities.

We've already covered three factions prior to this. If you want an overview on Monsters, Scoia'tael, or Skellige, click the links to go directly to that blog post. In this post, we'll be covering one of the most popular factions: Northern Realms.

PLAYING NORTHERN REALMS FACTION IN GWENT

Sometimes also called Temeria, Northern Realms is the go-to faction for many Gwent players. You'll see this faction played very often and for good reason. It is straightforward to pick up, compared to other factions like Skellige, and rewarding as you can easily build Strength points with different abilities (more on that below).

An overview of Northern Realms cards in Gwent: The Legendary Card Game, with a look at the five Leader cards.

NORTHERN REALMS FACTION ABILITY

When playing Northern Realms in Gwent, your faction ability enables you to draw an extra card after winning a round. In a card game that requires you to carefully manage 10 cards over the course of multiple rounds, an extra card can tilt the game into your favour.

You’ll make the most of this faction ability if you can secure a win in the first round. This is going to increase your chance of keeping an upper hand on the second round, allowing you to win the game. Once you start a winning roll with Northern Realm, this faction’s ability helps you keep the momentum going and maintain pressure on your opponent in the following rounds.

NORTHERN REALMS STRATEGY: STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES TO CONSIDER

• The Northern Realms faction is uniquely strong in the Siege row (the bottom row, closest to the player). With Northern Realms, you have several Battista, Trebuchet, and Catapults cards among others that you can use to build a strong Siege row.

An example of a Northern Realms play that focuses on building numbers in the Siege row.

• If you are planning to play cards in the Siege row, be careful of Torrential Rain. This Weather card will make all unit cards in Siege reduce to 1 Strength value. It’s best to keep a Clear Weather card in your hand, just in case of rain.

An opponent's Torrential Rain would bring each Unit card to 1 Strength value, reducing your total Strength to 5.

• Unit cards with Tight Bond ability can multiply their strength exponentially. Units with this ability in Northern Realms include Blue Stripes Commando, Crinfrid Reavers Dragon hunter, and Catapults.
  
  When playing cards with Tight Bond, each Catapult multiplies by the number of Catapult cards on the board. For example, if you have 3 Blue Stripes Commando in play, then each Blue Stripe Commando is multiplied by 3 (the number of Blue Stripes Commando present on the board).

Each Blue Stripe Commando is multiplied by 3, as there are three of them present.

• Beware a well-timed Scorch. Tight bonds require time to set up properly, since you can only put down one card each turn. If your opponent plays a Scorch card while you have 2 or 3 Tight Bond units in play, this one move will eliminate your highest value cards in one move. In this case, it could take out all of your Tight Bond units in play. This would disable your Tight Bond ability or make it useless if you have only one Tight Bond unit left in play or in your hand.
  

There are different ways to build your army when playing Northern Realms. You could invest in Tight Bond units or build a strong Siege row, true to the nature of this faction. Or you could adopt a similar strategy across factions and play with Spies and groups that Muster, which allows you to play multiple cards at once. Northern Realms is strong in part because it gives you several paths to building the strongest army.

Why is Northern Realms your favorite faction to play? Leave a comment with any additional tips for players looking to master their gameplay using a Northern Realms deck!